Thief swipes Rep. Dicks’s boat

No need to send out an SOS — after a brief disappearance, Rep. Norm Dicks’s boat is back in (hopefully) safe waters.

The Washington Democrat’s cellphone started ringing Wednesday in the middle of his speech on the financial services spending bill.

It was his son, Ryan, calling up his dad to update him on the boat, which had been stolen the previous night.

But before any sinking feeling could come over the congressman, there came some good news: Ryan Dicks had found the boat.

Dicks’s office tells ITK that Dicks keeps a motorboat for fishing at a canal in his home state.

“It was tied up out there, but someone must have taken it for a joyride because it was apparently hotwired,” said Dicks’s chief of staff, George Behan.

Behan says Dicks will likely file a police report since the hotwiring might have damaged the vessel.

After hanging up with his son, Dicks apologized and told the crowd, “My boat was stolen last night … but we got it back.”

Rep. Hal Rogers (R-Ky.) later quipped to his colleague, “The next time I borrow your boat, can you leave more gas in the tank?”

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